Hurricane Laura traveled and hit the Louisiana coastline on August 20th and lasted 9 days. The hurricane came from the Atlantic Ocean and went from being labeled a category 1 hurricane to a category 4 within 24 hours. It appeared during the Atlantic hurricane season and had potential for devastating damage from the beginning.
When the Hurricane was at its highest point the National Hurricane Center warned the people who were still in the area of extremely deadly surges that could reach 15 feet up and had maximum winds of 150 mph. During the height of the hurricane, officials warned the citizens still in the areas that these could be unsurvivable conditions. Citizens were told to put plastic bags filled with their names and info in their pockets in case they were not gotten to in time. Poweroutage.US calculated that over 349,000 people who were their customers, were left without any power during the events as of August 27th. Hurricane Laura was the 7th Hurricane to make landfall this season in the US and with so much time still left in the season along with climate change making these storms much more dangerous, worry is still circulating in people’s minds.
Hurricane Laura has made a huge impact on hurricane history in the US. Josh Morgerman, a well-known hurricane chaser, stated his thoughts on Laura and its impacts. He stated that Laura has “become the new benchmark storm for this region of the United States.” The reason for this is because Laura has tied for most dangerous with the 1856 island hurricane that has landed in Louisiana.
After Hurricane Laura had moved on, leaving thousands of people in distress, people were able to find out more about what had happened during this time. There were damaged hospitals, buildings, and homes all around. The recovery seemed impossible with COVID- 19 still raging and impacting people every day. Hospitals had a harder time getting to newly hurt people and treating them. The death toll was rising, but not all of them were directly from the Hurricane. More than half of the deaths were caused by the improper use of portable generators, this let carbon monoxide into their homes. As of September 4th, the death toll is at least 24 people. Laura has left destruction and US history behind in its tracks from taking lives and causing a commotion, this Hurricane has taken more than could have been imagined.
